History

Name

Misirlou (Μισιρλού) is the feminine form of Misirlis (Μισιρλής) which comes from the Turkish word Mısırlı, which is formed by combining Mısır (“Egypt” in Turkish, borrowed from Arabic مِصر‎ Miṣr) with the Turkish -lı suffix, literally meaning “Egyptian”.

Composition

While the exact folk origin of the song is not well established, it is thought to have originated somewhere in Egypt or Asia Minor. The earliest recording of the song is uncertain.

The first known early recording of the song was by the rebetiko musician, Tetos Demetriades, in 1927. Theodotos (“Tetos”) Demetriades (Greek: Θεόδοτος (“Τέτος”) Δημητριάδης), an Ottoman Greek, was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, in 1897, and he resided there until he moved to the United States in 1921,[2] toward the end of the Turkish–Greek conflict during the last phase of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and establishment of modern Turkey. It is likely that he was familiar with the song as a folk song before he moved to the United States. Later, in 1930, Michalis Patrinos, another Ottoman Greek from Izmir, Ottoman Empire, and his rebetiko band recorded a cover version in Athens, Greece.[3] As with almost all early rebetika songs (a style that originated with the Greek refugees from Asia Minor in Turkey), the song’s actual composer has never been identified, and its ownership rested with the band leader. Demetriades, who lived in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, until he moved to the United States in 1921 at the age of 23,[2] named the song “Misirlou” in his original 1927 Columbia label, which is a regional pronunciation of “Egyptian” in Turkish (“Mısırlı”), as opposed to the corresponding word for “Egyptian” in Greek, which is Αιγύπτιοι (Aigyptioi).

Initially, the song was composed as a Greek tsifteteli dance, in the rebetiko style of music, at a slower tempo and a different key than the orientalized performances that most are familiar with today. This was the style of recording by Michalis Patrinos in Greece, circa 1930, which was circulated in the United States by the Orthophonic label; another recording was made by Patrinos in New York City in 1931 as well.

The song’s oriental melody has been so popular for so long that many people, from Morocco to Iraq, claim it to be a folk song from their own country. In fact, in the realm of Middle Eastern music, the song is a very simplistic one, since it is little more than going up and down the Hijaz Kar or double harmonic scale (E-F-G#-A-B-C-D#). It still remains a well known Greek, Klezmer, and Arab folk song.